Beneventan script - photo 1
Beneventan script - photo 2

Beneventan script

Lot 36
12.12.2022 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 18 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 869431
Lot 36 | Beneventan script
Estimate value
£ 18 000 – 25 000
Beneventan script
Leaf from a Noted Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Southern Italy, Montecassino, early 12th century]
An extremely handsome example of Beneventan script and illumination, from an exceptionally fine Missal with early musical notation

c. 245 × 180mm. Blind-ruled for 29 lines written in a very fine regular Beneventan minuscule, the text from the beginning of the Offertory on the vigil (28 June) of the feast of Sts Peter and Paul (29 June) to the end of the reading from Acts 12:1–11 on the following day (‘Michi autem nimis honorificati sunt […] & de omni expectacione plebis Iudeorum’), five lines of music in adiastemmatic neums; illuminated with three foliate initials in gold edged with red and with blue in interstices; smaller initials also decorated, in red on fields of blue, green, and yellow; capitals with red, yellow, and green highlighting (the top line of text on each side worn but still legible, the edges darkened and somewhat ragged)

Provenance:
(1) At least two, and probably all, of the known leaves were owned by Erik von Scherling c.1935; he reported that they came from Neapolitan archives.
(2) Colker MS 286; acquired in 1980 from Maggs, Catalogue 1002: Western Text Hands from the Late 9th to Early 14th Century [1980], no 40 pl.17.

Twelve other leaves from the same manuscript are known – described by Brown as of ‘Pure Montecassino type’ – most of them with nearly consecutive foliation (the present leaf would have been f.ccvi):
(f.ccvii) Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit B.P.L. 2842
(ff.ccviii–ccix) London & Oslo, Schoyen Collection, part of MS 55
(f.ccx) Oberlin (OH), Oberlin College, Allen Memorial Art Museum, MS 58.19
(f.ccxi) Rome, Edward Ullman Collection (formerly Durham (NC), Duke University, Perkins Library, MS Ullman 14; and before that in Ullman’s collection at Chapel Hill)
(f.ccxii) New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.830.1
(f.ccxvi) Riverside (CA), California Baptist College, Annie Gabriel Library, P. Boyd Smith Hymnology Collection SN
(ff.ccxxi–ccxxii) London & Oslo, Schoyen Collection, part of MS 55
(f.ccxxviii) Waco (TX), Baylor University, Guy Crouch Music and Fine Arts Library, Jennings Collection 2

The folio numbers are not yet published for two leaves:
Chicago (IL), Newberry Library, Case MS 163
New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.830.2

The use of colour and/or gold for each piece of text marks this is as an extraordinarily luxurious production.
Place of origin:Italy
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
28.11.2022 – 12.12.2022
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